A conservative, pro-choice Roman Catholic professor of law, Douglas Kmiec, says he was recently refused Communion because he supports Barack Obama for president.
Having been drawn to Senator Obama’s remarkable “love thy neighbor” style of campaigning, his express aim to transcend partisan divide, and specifically, his appreciation for faith (“secularists are wrong when they ask believers to leave their religion at the door before entering into the public square”), I did not expect to be clobbered by co-religionists.
On the blogs, I have been declared “self-excommunicated,” and recently at a Mass before a dinner speech to Catholic business leaders, a very angry college chaplain excoriated my Obama-heresy from the pulpit at length and then denied my receipt of communion.
Andrew Sullivan says on The Daily Dish,
That’s an outrage – and a declaration by some elements in the Catholic hierarchy of a political war. Kmiec has an extraordinary record of pro-life advocacy and passion. Perhaps that’s why he was singled out. But this is an extraordinary sign of how extreme the theocons have become.
It appears that Kmeic is not alone. dotCommonweal.org reports that “he joins Kathleen Sebelius in the small but growing group: “not at my Communion rail.”
See The Daily Dish: Denying Kmiec Communion